Chi. A charitable wish and full of love.
Aar. Here lacks but your mother for to say amen. 44
Chi. And that would she for twenty thousand more.
Dem. Come, let us go and pray to all the gods
For our beloved mother in her pains.
Aar. [Aside.] Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over. 48
Dem. Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus?
Chi. Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son.
Dem. Soft! who comes here?
Enter Nurse with a blackamoor Child.
Nur. Good morrow, lords. O! tell me, did you see 52
Aaron the Moor?
Aar. Well, more or less, or ne'er a whit at all,
Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?
Nur. O gentle Aaron! we are all undone. 56
Now help, or woe betide thee evermore!
Aar. Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep!
What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms?
Nur. O! that which I would hide from heaven's eye, 60
Our empress' shame, and stately Rome's disgrace!
She is deliver'd, lords, she is deliver'd.
Aar. To whom?
Nur. I mean, she is brought a-bed.
Aar. Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her? 64
Nur. A devil.
Aar. Why, then she's the devil's dam: a joyful issue.
Nur. A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue.
Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad 68
50 Belike: probably
